I had cataract surgery 4 years ago, using ReStor implants. For most things, I don't need to wear glasses, but I do need them in dark retaurants (ReStor makes reading in the dark difficult), or when using the GPS in the car (ReStor makes reading distance and far distance easy, but midrange, 2'-8', difficult). I got a pair of Silhouettes with high index progressives so I could read the teleprompter when giving speeches and not have the glasses become a prominent part of my face. That was three years ago. I think the frames were a couple hundred, the lenses about four hundred, and about a hundred for the opthomology/optometry doc. Ins paid a couple hundred, and I paid the rest. I rarely wear them...I give maybe 10 or 12 speeches a year and occasionally wear them at the office if I need to for the last little bit of astigmatism the combined cataract/AK surgery did not correct.
Last year, frustrated because I did not want to wear the expensive glasses while making repairs in the attic, under the sink, and in difficult places, I bought a pair of el cheapos (as cheap as the local optometrist gets). They are progressives that automatically get darker in the sun (can't recall the name), for 200 inclusing the exam, after insurance paid their part. I also had a spare pair of decent frames from before the surgery and had them put in the most basic progressives they had, for about another hundred or hundred fifty...no insurance coverage. These are both for driving with gps, grocery shopping, and dark/dirty work. In my case, any glasses I buy would be meaningless if they weren't progressives or trifocals. I wish that they weren't so expensive, but vision is one thing it is hard to do without, and so far I have found it difficult to trust an internet purveyor of glasses.
R